Saudi Gazette

RIYADH — Saudi Arabia was one of the first G20 nations to recognize the importance of digitization of their global value chains in order to diversify its economy and create infinite number of small and medium businesses SMEs.

That was one of the major points discussed in Future Investment Intuitive International conference which was held under the aegis of Custodian of The Two Holy Mosques here and stressed by Gregory D. Bird CPA, deputy secretary general of Global Coalition for Efficient Logistics, who spoke on the economy digitization in the Kingdom.

“In fact, Saudi Arabia conducted a diagnostic assessment of their trade practices that included nearly 60,000 data points and covered nearly all the large, medium, and small sized companies across Saudi Arabia. This crucial step involved the Kingdom’s Minister of Commerce and Industry, Saudi Customs, Council of Saudi Chambers, International Islamic Finance Cooperation and the Islamic Center for Development of Trade. This collaborative and interactive coordination between these authorities created an atmosphere for development,” he said.

Bird stressed that this analysis or the study identified that nearly 90% of the Saudi trade participants have no integrated system when they conduct their trade business. And more than 95% of the trade participants stated that they wanted new digital tools in order to reduce their trade costs, gain trade access to finance, better connect with the trade market around the world, and grow their trade.

“Since Saudi Arabia’s first engagement in the G20, the rest of G20 countries have also taken similar steps to be engaged. We can say that now there is global consensus, you must deliver digital tools to the businesses, in order to grow and diversify your economy, especially the SMEs. So they can be more efficient in conducting their trade. This will create millions of jobs and billions of dollars in new trade,” he said.

“By engaging the world’s top 12 technology frames that already made 60% of the world GDP. They will deliver these digital tools for the Saudi businesses within 18-24 months. There will be complete resurgence in terms of job creation and to meet the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 for diversification. This is the biggest area of impact that can be done of any of the initiatives that are being proposed. Saudi Arabia is adopting new raft of innovation, technology and investment that pour into the interest of citizens,” he added.

Bird emphasized that the Kingdom is moving forward into implementation and this is a credit to the Kingdom and to the Vision 2030. “60%of the world employment are by SMEs and it represents nearly 50% of the world GDP. I believe with the Saudi leadership and with the focus of having a holistic approach of creating a global platform, Saudi Arabia can have excellent of E-commerce, E-finance, E-insurance and E-logistics platforms that bring all of the required information together at no cost,” he said.